Oct. 30, 2013

Frank Beckmann on Oct. 30, 2013. / Anthony Fenech/DFP

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Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

Frank Beckmann was joking, saying that all he hoped was Michigan would score a point Saturday against Michigan State.

“I don’t know if they will,” he said, before wondering aloud in jest to broadcasting partner Jim Brandstatter whether the pair should even bother to show up to Spartan Stadium.

But the longtime U-M football announcer is certainly going to show up behind the microphone Saturday in East Lansing, like he has Saturday after Saturday during his 33-year career as the voice of Wolverines football.

This year’s game will be his last intrastate rivalry tilt. Beckmann, along with Brandstatter, MSU broadcasters George Blaha, Jason Strayhorn and an audience of more than 100 people, reminisced on his memories Wednesday afternoon at the Skyline Club in Southfield.

Beckmann was honored with an excellence award for his career on the Detroit broadcasting scene — which includes numerous top Michigan Sportscaster awards and a spot in the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame — but afterward, deflected attention from the award.

“It’s not about me,” he said. “It’s still about the team. It’s still about the school. Michigan football has been around for 101 years before I ever got here and it’s going to be around for 100 years after I’m gone.”

Still, Beckmann said the honor meant a little bit more to him because of who it came from.

“It’s your colleagues who are saying nice things about you so that always means a lot,” he said. “They’ve been through the wars, they know what it takes to do the job so you take extra pride in that.”

And school pride was evident in the audible reaction from the crowd as they went through a montage of Beckmann’s greatest calls, from the “Spartan Bob” clock game in 2001 — “stolen” and “robbed” were some of his words during the call — to his favorite rivalry memory, the Braylon Edwards-led Michigan comeback in 2004.

“The way he took over, he took it to a different level in that game,” he said. “And to do it in that rivalry, to come back like they did, it was special.”

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Sitting side-by-side with Blaha brought Beckmann full circle.

It was Beckmann who hired Blaha to cover the Pistons, which led to his storied career as a NBA and college football announcer.

If it wasn’t for him, Blaha said, “I might be talking about the Washington-Washington State game today.”

The quartet of broadcasters offered their insights on Saturday’s game and traded barbs along the way.

After Strayhorn mentioned MSU’s last national championship, Beckmann quipped: “In the 1950s? Just curious. I wanted to make sure my math was right.”

And the math shows that this weekend’s game very well could decide the Big Ten Legends division, for a trip to the conference championship game and ultimately, the Rose Bowl.

With the stakes at the highest point in recent memory, Beckmann reflected on what he has learned about the rivalry.

“I know this is going to come out the wrong way,” he said. “I think Michigan State has wanted to be Michigan. And by that, I mean, they’ve wanted that success.

“They want that respect that Michigan has. When people see the Sparty and the block ‘S’, they want people to think of that the same way people do with the winged helmed and block M.”

And after four straight wins until last year’s loss, he sees MSU getting there.

“They’re starting to get more respect because they have won more,” Beckmann said. “I think that will eventually filter down to all the fans. There’s a good part of fans in East Lansing that know that. You can’t demand respect, you have to earn it.”

And in this, his last season as the voice of Michigan football, Beckmann was awarded with the respect of his peers he has long earned.

“You want the listeners to enjoy your work and that’s great, that’s what you’re there for,” he said. “But when it’s your colleagues saying it, that’s when you feel pretty good about yourself.”